Apple's new iPad goes on sale

Revolutions unfolding in the Middle East and a tsunami showing up at California's front door didn't stop hundreds of iPad fans from converging at the Apple Store in Palo Alto Friday evening for the Second Coming.

Practically panting to get their hands on the highly anticipated iPad 2, a conga line of eager customers stretched down University, up Kipling and down Lytton hours before the tablet went on sale.

"I wanted this iPad so bad, but I had to work today, so I got my cousin to hold my place in line since Thursday at 5:30 p.m.'' said Arnold Camat, 29, of Fremont, who finally showed up Friday afternoon to make his big score. "I told her she could borrow my car to go to the movies tonight with her boyfriend. I owe her big time.''

Halfway down Kipling Street, 41-year-old Marc Drucker was holding the first-generation 64-gigabyte iPad, which he had just sold on eBay for $690 so that he could buy the second-generation model.

"I'm an admitted fanboy,'' he said. "I have to have the latest version of every Apple product immediately when it comes out. And I get a little edgy if I don't get that product on the first day. I know it sounds crazy. Or maybe 'pathetic' is a better word.''

Apple could sell 600,000 of the second version of the iPad this weekend, extending the device's lead in a crowded market. Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher who predicted more than a half-million units would sell in the first 24 hours, is one of several who expect the iPad 2 to outpace its predecessor. Apple sold 300,000 of that version in 24 hours. The iPad line is the fastest-selling technology product in history, measured by revenue. In less than three months, revenue topped $2 billion.

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Since it was unveiled March 2 in San Francisco -- complete with a surprise appearance by ailing CEO Steve Jobs, who's currently on medical leave -- the iPad 2 has received reviews ranging from ho-hum to raves. Billed in its advertising as "It's thinner. It's lighter. It's faster. And it's here,'' the second-generation device joins its groundbreaking predecessor, which already controls nearly 90 percent of the tablet market.

At 4:59 p.m., as Apple employees inside the store started to cheer and employees outside began to whip the crowd into a frenzy, black curtains were pulled off the windows, and the fanboys and fangirls went wild.

Ten minutes later, Andrew Davidson, a 25-year-old Sunnyvale engineer who said that he worked at Apple until recently, walked outside waving his new toy over his head as his sidewalk audience erupted in applause.

"I actually worked on this for Apple and it's definitely better than the first iPad,'' Davidson said. "It feels better to touch, it's lighter and faster. It's a real slick product and it's great to finally have one in my hands.''

At the downtown San Francisco store for the iPad 2 debut, the gray market got there first.

Dennis Ng, 20, said he was being paid $10 an hour to arrive before 5 a.m. -- half a day before Apple was to begin selling the device at its stores. He said he was among about 35 mostly Chinese immigrants at the front of the line, waiting to buy the iPad 2 for somebody else. Resales of new electronics in countries where they're not yet available feed the so-called gray market.

The iPad 2 will be released in 26 other countries March 25. Nations like China and Russia have to wait even longer, creating a market for people to import the device and resell it. According to a July estimate by Flora Wu, a handset analyst at BDA China, gray-market purchases accounted for almost half the iPhones sold in China.